Penn State springs back into action with runnerup finish in Big Ten Match Play Championship

   It ended Saturday with Northwestern defeating Penn State on a tiebreaker – just what that tiebreaker is seems to be something of a secret – to capture the Big Ten Match Play Championship title at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Ocean Course at the Hammock Beach Resort in Palm Coast, Fla.

   But Penn State will take the runnerup finish after head coach Greg Nye saw his Nittany Lions perform solidly under the unique pressure of match play for two days in sunny Florida.

   It was a disappointing finish to the 2018-2019 season for Penn State. The Nittany Lions needed a strong showing in the Big Ten Championship at the Philadelphia Cricket Club’s A.W. Tillinghast classic Wissahickon Course for any chance of earning an NCAA regional bid.

   But with a cruel April wind blowing on the second day of the tournament, Penn State finished 10^th and that’s how the season ended.

   A much different Penn State team had its moments in the fall of the wraparound 2019-’20 season and was seeded seventh in a Big Ten Match Play that did not include reigning five-time Big Ten champion Illinois.

   Ryan Davis, a senior from Berkeley Heights, N.J., and Alec Bard, a senior from New Hartford, N.Y., are holdovers from the Cole Miller-led 2017 Penn State team that made it to the NCAA Championship at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill.

   Nye has a stable of talented freshmen, but he is bringing them along slowly. He also has a group of juniors who are making the most of their opportunity to see some action. And everybody contributed somewhere along the way to the Nittany Lions’ run to the final this weekend.

   Bard came up big in the title match against top-seeded Northwestern, pulling out a 1-up decision over Eric McIntosh, a junior from Scotland.

   Two of the juniors also pulled out victories, Lukas Clark, a former Council Rock South standout, claiming a 3 and 1 win over John Driscoll III, a freshman from Lake Mary, Fla., and James McHugh of Rye, N.Y. capturing a 2 and 1 verdict over Yannick Artigolle, a sophomore from Hong Kong.

   Davis fell, 2 and 1, to David Nyfjall, a sophomore from Sweden, and freshman Jimmy Meyers, a member of Pittsburgh Central Catholic’s 2018 PIAA Class AAA championship team, also dropped a 2 and 1 decision to James Imai, a freshman from Brookline, Mass.

   I’m guessing the tiebreaker had something to do with total holes won, so the 5 and 4 loss suffered by junior Lou Olsakovsky, an Upper St. Clair product, at the hands of Everton Hawkins, a senior from Irvine, Calif., might have cost Penn State the title. But Olsakovsky had a lot to do with the Nittany Lions reaching the title match in the first place.

   Besides, Olsakovsky might be Penn State’s most decorated match-play performer, having lost in the final of the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship last summer at Llanerch Country Club to Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Sean Semenetz. Along the way, Olsakovsky took out six-time Sigel winner Nathan Smith, the four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship winner and three-time U.S. Walker Cup team member from Pittsburgh.

   There’s nothing that establishes your match-play cred in Pennsylvania quite like a win over Nathan Smith on your resume.

   Olsakovsky’s 4 and 2 win over Maryland’s Chris Lane, a senior from Great Falls, Va., might very well have provided the tiebreaker edge in the Nittany Lions’ victory over the 11th-seeded Terrapins in Saturday morning’s semifinals that put Penn State in the final.

   McHugh earned a 1-up decision over Will Celiberti, a freshman from Ridgewood, N.J., while Clark and Meyers battled to draws, Clark deadlocking with Christian Park, a senior from Charlotte, N.C., and Meyers tying up Will Koras, a sophomore from Lutherville, Md.

   Bard suffered his only loss of the weekend at the hands of freshman Austin Barbin, the Elkton, Md. resident who won the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior Boys’ Championship and was GAP’s 2019 Junior Player of the Year and that’s just the highlights of a spectacular final summer of junior golf. Barbin edged Bard, 1-up.

   Davis also went to the 18^th hole before falling, 2-up, to Peter Knade, a senior from Easton, Md. who finished in a tie for ninth in last spring’s Big Ten Championship at the Cricket Club.

   Bard birdied the 18^th hole to pull out a 1-up victory over Purdue’s Nick Dentino, a freshman from Carmel, Ind., that was the crucial win in Penn State’s 3.5-2.5 verdict over the second-seeded Boilermakers in Friday afternoon’s quarterfinals.

   McHugh and Meyers had big wins against Purdue, McHugh edging Cole Bradley, a junior home boy from West Lafayette, Ind., 2 and 1, and Meyers rolling to a 4 and 3 decision over Peyton Snoeberger, a freshman from Williamsport, Ind. Clark managed a draw with Andrew Farraye, a sophomore from St. Augustine, Fla.

   Davis and Bard set the tone in the opening round with identical 4 and 3 victories as Penn State claimed a 4.5-1.5 win over 10^th-seeded Indiana. Davis defeated Mitch Davis, a sophomore from Valparaiso, Ind., while Bard knocked off Ethan Shepherd, a junior from Greenwood, Ind. Pretty sure Shepherd is the older brother of Duke freshman Erica Shepherd, who captured the 2017 U.S. Girls’ Junior Amateur Championship.

   Olsakovsky and Meyers also got off to good starts for the Nittany Lions with victories in the Indiana match. Olsakovsky claimed a 4 and 3 victory over Jack Sparrow, a graduate student from Floyds Knobs, Ind., and Meyers earned a 2 and 1 decision over Evan Gaesser, a senior from Kendall, N.Y.

   Clark battled Brock Ochsenreiter, a senior from Nashville, Tenn., to a draw.

   After getting a bye in the opening round, Northwestern rolled to a 4.5-1.5 victory over eighth-seeded Iowa in the quarterfinals and cruised past 13^th-seeded Nebraska, 4-2, in the semifinals to earn its spot in the final opposite Penn State.

   Barbin’s only loss of the tournament came in Maryland’s 3.5-2.5 victory over Nebraska in Saturday afternoon’s third-place match. Barbin fell on the final hole, 1-up, to the Cornhuskers’ Brandon Meyer, a junior from Gilbert, Ariz.

   In addition to his win over Penn State’s Bard in Saturday morning’s semifinals, Barbin claimed a 4 and 3 victory over Rutgers’ Tony Jeong in the Terrapins’ tiebreaker win over the sixth-seeded Scarlet Knights in Friday morning’s opening round and earned a 1-up decision over Minnesota’s Connor Glynn, a freshman from Waconia, Minn., in Maryland’s 3.5-2.5 victory over the third-seeded Gophers in Friday afternoon’s quarterfinals.